The document discusses the need for Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) systems to give customers more control over their relationships with companies. It argues that current Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are one-sided in favoring vendors' ability to "manage, control, and own" customers. VRM aims to enable customers to manage their own data and set terms for how vendors can interact with them. This could help shift the balance of power towards mutual relationships rather than vendors treating customers as "captives" or "eyeballs." The document outlines several potential capabilities of VRM systems, such as expressing preferences to vendors and paying for priority customer service. It also proposes an "r-button" symbol to help VRM and CR

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The Personal Platform
Doc Searls

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Thesis: A free customer is more
valuable than a captive one.
Problem is, we still think the opposite way.

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We’re still in the era
of the captive customer.
On the sell side, we try to “manage,” “control” and otherwise
“own” them.
That’s why…

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We’ve come to think a “free market”
is “your choice of silo.”
Slaves, choose your captors!

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Alvin Toffler called the all-silo era
“The Industrial Age”
He said it would come to an end with
the beginning of the “Information
Age.”
That was in 1980.

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28 years later, the Net is here,
but…
The Industrial Age is still with us.
We’re still trying to “manage” customers.
This is still the case, for example, with mobile phones.

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What’s new is still old.
Mobile telephony is fine.
Mobile anything is not.
Yet.

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If you want mobile-anything, you
need a generative platform.
Generativity happens
when the platform is the
opposite of a silo.
It runs on anything, and
supports anything.
PCs are generative.
The Net is generative.
The iPhone is not.
Yet.
Meanwhile, why not?

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Toffler gave us the clues,
way back in 1980
From The Third Wave:
“(The Industrial Age)
violently split apart two
aspects of our lives that
had always been one…
production and
consumption…
“In so doing, it drove a giant
invisible wedge into our
economy, our psyches …
That’s why…

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Who we are at work still wants to
“manage” who we are at home.
So we still “target,” “acquire,”
“capture,” “manage” and think
we “own” customers.
Even though the Net has been
around for awhile.
And we all have mobile phones.

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You see it in our CRM systems.
But here’s
the cool
thing…

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Humans are generative.
They run on whatever
they want.
And anything can run
on them.
Well, not yet.
It will when they’re
enabled.
How can we make customers platforms and not just eyeballs?

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What we need is VRM:
Vendor Relationship Management.
With VRM, we get to manage our relationships with
vendors.
We get to set our terms.
We get to help vendors in ways CRM systems still
can’t… yet.
We get to help CRM actually relate.
For example…
VRMVRM CRMCRM

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I should be able to express global (and
logical) preferences outside of anyone’s silo.
Such as…
IF I am calling for tech support,
THEN I don’t want to hear a
commercial message.
AND I am willing to pay X to
reach a human in <60 seconds.

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I should be able to manage
my own health care data.
Instead of risking my life when I fill out manual
forms with names of diseases I don’t know how to
spell.

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I should be able to issue an “intentcast”
to whole markets, on the fly.
For example, send a message saying I need a 200w 220->110 converter
in Amsterdam on a Sunday afternoon…
— without going into a silo, or giving any more than the required information…
— which mainly consists of being trustworthy and having money to spend.

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Mobile is where
VRM is going to take off.
Because it’s
finally getting
generative.

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I should be able to manage my relationships
with vendors. By my own devices.
That means “agreements” need to go both ways.
My TOS should eliminate TOSes from corporate lawyers that
nobody reads and everybody has to “accept”.
It means real relationships between truly consenting patries.
Just like we have in the physical world.

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Our first project is a new business model
for free media.
(that isn’t advertising)
Free media include…
Non-commercial broadcasting
Blogs, podcasts
Music…
Anything that’s either free on purpose or too easy to “steal”
CRMCRMVRMVRM

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Our first tool is the r-button:
a symbol of VRM+CRM
It says,
“I want to pay…
what I want.” And/or,
“I want to relate…
on my terms…
and not just yours.”
“This is my code’s way
of letting your code know that.
Even if you’re not listening. Yet.”
Its how VRM meets CRM.
CRMCRMVRMVRM

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The r-button can represent
three different states.
1. Intention to buy (and to relate).
2. Intention to sell, but also to relate
on your (the buyer’s) terms, as well
as your own.
3. Existing relationship — which can
be viewed and unpacked on either
side.

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There’s no limit to data types
stored on both sides.
These can include intentions, transaction records,
preferences, memberships, “social graphs”,
shopping lists, existing agreements, whatever.

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Here’s where you’ll see it first:
On a radio tuner for the iPhone and other mobile
Internet devices.

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That provides a new business
model for media.
Starting with noncommercial sources.
And growing to include everything.
Starting with the music business, probably.

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VRM makes customers into platforms.
It gives customers an API, or a set of APIs.
You can program goods and services
— based on what customers actually want, and are in control of.

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Contact jive:
http://projectvrm.org
doc@searls.com.